Identifying Improvements – from Shipyards to Software

Often, innovations are considered as a big, breakthrough products that will change the way we live. But, small incremental innovations – improvements can also be very important, through big savings.

Could organizations be so well organized that there is no place for improvement? Of course not!

So, this is the easiest part in the quest for ideas – everyone surely have a lot of ideas in how to make the everyday work more efficient, faster or just how to eliminate unnecessary costs or wastes in the work area. So, improvements are possible everywhere, it is just needed to find them.

I’ll take two examples: shipyards and software development.

In the shipyard, an improvement in process of making one ship which can be used in future can save thousands of dollars. Improvements in choosing materials or reducing waste, will save physical resources and time.

In the software development, small change in process can save money through saving time. New self-developed tools or scripts which save time in development or installation of the product are part of many software firms. This kind of ideas often exist and they are realized, but they are not considered as improvements.

In the both cases new ideas can be triggered through workshops which covers overview of the process with defining measures which will result in savings. However, just identifying improvements should make a big boost to the innovative climate in organizations, with making innovation something what is already done in the next room or in the same department.